Heads Or Tails?
by crazylazyandfanficsmaybe
Summary: Avengers AU. It's been twenty-years after Loki took over. We finally had a chance to deal a big blow to him. But I couldn't. I couldn't let his kids die. WARNING: Polygamy, cursing, and dictatorship. NOT LOKI X MAIN CHARACTER
1. Happy Anniversary

**Author's note: Please tell me if there's anything wrong or if there's any improvements to make. Criticism welcome, but please don't be mean. **

I ran my thumb over the rough face of the penny, feeling my finger tip where it was melted and smoothed at the top of Abe's head. A heated needle was stuck trough to make a hole so I could put a string through it to wear it. When was that? Fourteen years ago? No... Thirteen and a half, the anniversary was today.

"Damn you, Loki." I breathed.

I stumbled out of bed, maneuvering my way around clothes, some garbage and last week's rummaging where I found an old radio. Pausing for a second, I grab it and adjust the single, rusted antenna. Turning it on without flipping the switch I hear some garbled words.

"... The Twentieth Anniversary of our great leader-"

"Great leader my pale ass." I muttered.

I turned the knob again.

"So, you were in Stuttgart?"

"Yes, such a great presence he had-"

"Bullshit." I groaned.

I decided to try one last time. I flipped the knob between 100.9 and 101.3 and listened.

"Two days from now, we will be celebrating at Crown Tower, previously Stark Tower, of the day King Loki of Asgard took New York and liberated the world from peace."

"Shit. Shit. Shit. Nothing but crap on today." I thought.

I tossed the radio behind my shoulder and heard it clatter into some metal stuff. Probably tin cans of corn. I like corn.

"Now I'm hungry." I moaned.

I checked my little, too-tight, fake leather watch. 6:57 PM, it was really AM, but the little knobs were broken and I can't change the damn clockwork. I was always afraid I'd break it.

"You can reprogram supercomputers, turn off lasers and block telecommunications with your mind, but you can't figure out clockwork. Lovely."

Walked over to my metal automatic door, unlocked it with a swish of the finger (I could do it without it, but it just looked really cool) and put on my patchy leather shoes. I looked to my mantle before leaving. On it sat the only shiny thing in the room. A moderately sized iron vase, clamped tight with a shining iron cap.

"Bye Pete, I'll be right back."

I stepped out and closed the door. My room didn't have any windows, I was in the inside of the building. It really sucked because I loved watching sunsets and sunrises. Just like we always would. I walked down the hall, kicking at rats and hearing some TVs and radios in other rooms, to the window. It was dusty again. I made a mental note to trade some of my garbage for better garbage and half an ounce of window cleaner, not just for the window, but also for Peter. I turned to walk down the stairs, four floors down. I never took the elevator, I never trusted it. Not with all the power outages.

"Damn rats." I say, turning over a damp nest in the corner.

I saw a bunch of the little, pink babies nursing off the fat mother. I made another mental note to get some rat poison, or cleats. I kept descending the stairs, saying my good mornings to my friends and neighbors, and finally reached the bottom floor. I saw a cleaner looking red head girl in blue near the door outside, manipulating the dripping water from a broken pipe.

"Hey Izzy." I greeted, putting a hand in one pocket.

"Hi Penny." She replied, making a curved, fish-like shape.

I tilted my head to get a better look at it. "A dolphin?"

"A porpoise."

I bent down to look at it. "Just curious, have you ever seen a porpoise?"

"No, but..." She created two miniature, Loki horns on it before laughing hysterically. "Get it?! Do you get it Penny?"

I crossed my arms and thought a bit. It's a porpoise with Loki's horns... Loki and a porpoise.

"'I am Loki and I am burdened with glorious porpoise.'" I huffed with crossed arms.

She laughed and slapped her knee. Who does that anymore? I rolled my head and turned to walk away.

"What? You didn't think it was funny?" She asked, at a loss for oxygen.

"It wasn't. It really wasn't."

She puckered her lips and crossed her eyes at me, but quickly shrugged it off. "You going to the mess hall?"

"Yup. I hope they have corn."

"You and your corn."

"And butter too."

Izzy chuckled as she walked beside me, smiling slightly. She turned to me with a sparkle in her eye.

"If you had to choose between a fancy banquet for a week out of every month for the rest of your life or the ability to create any type of-"

"Corn." I finished.

She laughed again. "Yes, corn."

"I choose corn." I spoke, the misty glass door before me

"You're so weird."

I chuckled. "What about you, Miss Porpoise?"

"That's not weird, it's just a play on words."

We walked out into the courtyard. The sun washed over the dead grass and somehow living weeds in the courtyard. We never maintained it because we needed to conserve water and time. I looked to the wall to see the fading white "ULA" graffiti on the side of the mess hall. It's been there for years, but they never bothered to repaint it.

"Over here Donny! I'm open!" A little girl shouted.

"Alright Mandy! Here!" A boy yelled.

A couple kids were playing soccer around the courtyard. The little girl, who looked about seven or eight, took the ball and swayed it over to the goal before kicking it hard. The ball whooshed into the old fishnet goal. Another little girl whistled loudly.

"GOAL!" She exclaimed.

Izzy smiled at them. "Look at them, so carefree."

"I know." I sighed, biting my inner lip. "Hopefully, one day, kids can be free with a childhood."

Izzy's smile fell into a frown. "I know. At least they extended the age of operation to nine."

"Me too, but Adam sure was pissed. He even used me as an example!" I threw my hands up dramatically.

"You had it at seven, right?" She asked.

"Yeah, it could've been worse." I replied as we walked up to the mess hall. "We could've been Freddie."

She nodded as we both stepped in. "We could have."

The two of us got in line. It was just the start of the breakfast rush. I smelled full grain toast, soy milk and eggs. Nothing corn related. Gosh dang it. I took a smudged tray and put it on the tray-slidey thing and scooted to the Lunch Lord.

"Alright Ms. Davids." He said, making the net around his long beard shake. "What will it be?"

"Any ration limits today?" I asked.

"For the toast, yes, two per person. For eggs no, we sped up the breeding of our chickens. Also, soup for lunch." He replied.

"Two toasts and..." I looked at the sunny-side up eggs and the over-easy eggs. I was indecisive, as usual, much to the annoyance of the Lunch Lord and the people behind me. I took my penny and flicked it, it spun around the string rapidly.

"Heads for sunny, tails for easy." I spoke.

It landed in my palm. Tails.

"Two over-easy, and please put it on toast." I requested.

He nodded. He put two partially burnt toast and two runny over-easy eggs on it before letting me move on. The lunchroom was getting more crowded, and soon the only hologram TVs we had were swamped with people watching. Nearby I sat with Izzy and another friend of mine, Oliver, a tall, muscular kid with oily brown hair and pale skin. I liked him, he reminded me of Peter. Down to the brown hair and pale skin, not the light brown eyes, though. His were green.

"You and your penny, Penny." He chuckled, cutting his toast to pieces.

"Find a penny pick it up, and through the day you'll use it to make weird decisions." Izzy chanted.

"Ha ha ha. I've had this thing for almost fourteen years, Death herself would have to pry it from my cold, dead fingers." I replied, looking at my half cooked egg. "Ollie, mind if you...?"

"Ok."

Pointing at my eggs, he shocked them with a hair-thin lightning bolt. They steamed, sizzling and bubbling a bit. But now they were cooked.

"Thanks." I said, picking it up and putting it into my mouth.

We angled ourselves to the TV, reading the English headlines. Many people, here and in Outside, were glad that English remained the most read and spoken language in the world, and Loki didn't turn it into Asgardian runes. The recent headline was: "IMPORTANT NEWSCAST FROM KING LOKI".

"Oh joy, our King is going to speak." Oliver groaned, shoving a triangle of toast in his mouth.

"What is it this time?" Izzy spoke. "Last time it was Queen Asha's pregnancy. That will be like his... Twenty-fourth kid. She's his fifth wife, right?"

"I thought it was Queen Kyoko." I shrugged.

"It was both." Oliver said. "Queen Kyoko was announced pregnant after Loki and Queen Rosa's wedding. A week later during Loki and Queen Rosa's isolated honeymoon, Queen Asha was pregnant."

"Damn, he's going to have twenty-five kids. How does he keep track of them all?" Izzy questioned as she reclined.

"I bet he tagged them with magic and only he can see they have labels." Oliver joked.

I snorted. "Yeah. 'That's August. That's Keiko. That's Eloise. Wait! Not, it's Dione.'"

"I barely remember twelve of the Princes and Princesses. Man I sure do feel bad with anyone that has to put up with them on a daily basis." Izzy remarked.

Soon the anthem popped up, a strange, classical and admittedly grand music number with flutes, violins and pianos. With a white flash transmission, the symbol of the World, a golden globe within a deep green flag, appeared. Then with a black flash, it transmissioned to Loki's family, there were thirty-one in all, counting Loki. He had seven wives, which makes me wonder if they take turns sharing a bed with him, all beautiful, all intelligent and all completely loyal to him.  
The first was Pyrrha, Greek, blond, she had five kids, he married her after he completely took over the world, which was a little less than a year after he came. Then was Kyoko, from Japan, two years after her, Sadiki from Kenya a year after her, Elena from France two years more, Asha from India surprisingly five years after, Huan from China five years after her, and Rosa from Mexico who was the most recent at a month and four years after Huan.  
He also had twenty-three children, all of varying age, twelve boys, ten girls. I honestly forgot who was from who. But I did take a note of a couple. Prince August, the heir, nineteen, blond hair, green eyes. He always was on TV, talking about how his father is great, and how he'll be honored to take the throne and bla bla bla. And I always remembered that little French boy of twelve, Serrure because he looked just like Loki in kid form. And one that I actually kind of pitied, Diana, the youngest besides the babies at four and Pyrrha's daughter. She wasn't lucky and wasn't born with the Asgardian (Jotun?) immunity to diseases. She got Stage Three lung cancer at two somehow, got chemotherapy and is better, but always has to be on an oxygen tank and in the hospital. I really hated Loki, but that poor kid. I mean two? Cancer at two!

"BOO!" Many shouted as they threw their runny eggs at the screen.

The holograms simply shook as it passed through them and made yellow on the wall. I could hear the Lunch Lord shouting at them to clean it up when I read the subtitles of what Loki was saying. They all sat down on the steps of what looked like Versailles, the most fortified of their castles. Even little Diana on her Oxygen tank, a pink scarf that matched her dress covered her bald head as she sat in a wheelchair, August sat beside her.

"Today is a celebration of a glorious day." The subtitles read, I matched the words to Loki's mouth movements.

That statement was followed by more boos, and more eggs.

"It is the twentieth anniversary of my rule, my family and I have some wonderful news to share." He said, I could faintly hear him.

"What? Did he destroy Asgard? Jotunheim? More Chitauri visits? Universal Shakespeare day?" Izzy guessed.

He turned towards Queen Rosa, who wore bright blue and gold garb, and took her hand. "Recently we have discovered that Queen Rosa is bearing twins." The room thundered a groan.

"Lovely, two more." I muttered.

"Her approximate birth date is March 17th, 2023. Only two days before Prince Takeshi's birthday."

"You think if he keeps having children he'll have enough for one birthday every day of the year?" Oliver asked.

"Yup, and a Leap Year." Izzy added.

"And the other good news." Loki walked to the other step, to Diana. He smiled at her and put his hand on her shoulder. "After two long years of fighting and the best technology and treatment on the planet, my brave little warrior, she will soon be free of this malicious disease."

I felt an involuntary sigh of relief go through my lungs.

"Finally, actually good news." I thought, eating more toast.

He went on to talk about how he feels, what sacrifices he's made and a whole bunch of other stuff no one really cared about. Izzy, Oliver and I kept eating through his speech. It didn't last long, ten, thirty minutes tops. It was seven twenty-five when he stopped and I heard the anthem again.

"In other news, we have just received word that Universal Liberation Army spy Samuel 'Skins' Gibbon has been captured and executed."

I dropped my toast. I looked up to see a spell of silence cast around the Mess Hall. All wide, blank eyes staring at the screen.

"Infamous for being a gene-splicing scientist and supplying members and even children in the ULA with powers and in association with former SHIELD member Adam Melloy, leader of the ULA, he was caught last night in Paris, hacking into a Chitauri mainframe with an unknown accomplice that was killed that night." Beside the reporter was a picture of a young man with red hair, pale skin popped up, he was laying on marble floor, one side of his head was scorched off.

I sucked in breathe, my mouth agape. "Steven... No..."

He was the first "Tech-Head", an experiment of Professor Gibbons to control programs that worked. He was the strongest, twenty-two years old. He also was my teacher. And my friend. I felt the tears drip down my face.

"I'm so sorry, Penny." Izzy spoke.

"JACK MAROON, ALISON BAKER, PENELOPE DAVIDS, CATHLEEN MCCOY, LUIZ TOMAS AND IRENE YUU! REPORT TO COMMUNICATIONS IMMEDIATELY!" Adam's voice demanded in the PA.

I jumped up. Swerving around tossed eggs, I ran out to the courtyard. I saw the curly haired, dark skinned Jack Maroon ran out too.

"Penny, do you know what the hell is going on?!" He asked, sprinting up next to me.

"Steven's dead, Jack! So is Gibbons! Loki got them!" I answered, tears still in my eyes.

This gave him pause. He breathed heavily, then roared, making the lights around him flicker.

"Come on!" I urged. "Melloy needs us!"

He looked at me, anger still in his eyes, but he nodded and followed me. Panting, we both climbed up the flight of stairs to Communications. It's one of the few places that didn't look like it went to Hell. It was filled with radios, internet, Morse, you name it. Hell, we even had smoke signals in case of emergency. The tall Cathleen and husky Luiz were there, and we were soon joined by Alison and Irene, also exhausted.

"Took you long enough."

Adam was a middle aged man, brown hair with a lot of grays, probably due to stress, some wrinkles, especially around the mouth, he was muscular and the strictest guy you could ever meet. He was there, on the Helicarrier when it happened. When Loki was put on. When Hulk killed Black Widow, and then destroyed himself with his own two hands, when Hawkeye got away with Loki. It was Iron Man, Captain America and Thor versus an army. They never had a chance.

"Sorry." Cathleen said. "We just got up."

"You come when I call you, you understand?" Adam growled.

We all bowed our heads. It wasn't fair, but we didn't want to piss off Adam. He turned to one of the super computers.

"Alright, Maroon, McCoy, Tomas you hack into the newscast. Yuu, Davids, Baker, make sure we're untraceable."

"Don't we always?" I asked.

Adams turned to glower at me. I turned away.

"Block tracers on three." Irene spoke, holding out her hands. "One, two, three."

I closed my eyes, I let everything fade away. I only saw the programs, the numbers, I could feel the computers in my head. Each button pressed, each program opened, each gigabyte. I had it, it was mine to control. Mine to change. I could see the newscast, the Eiffel Tower in the background, people moving about the streets. Suddenly, a black box popped up, a single blue line ran through it.

"Hello, Loki." Adam's voice was heard, as he spoke the blue line moved to his pitch.

Suddenly I felt pulsations in the network. People trying to close him, cancel him, shut off the news, and worse, try and find him. Try and find us. I swept anything that reached out to me away, redirecting it. To Hong Kong, to San Fransisco, to Tibet. Anywhere but here.

"First of all, Happy Anniversary. Here's to twenty years." He chuckled. "I heard what you did. You had Samuel killed. Oh, and the other guy's name? It was Steven Mills, a new father last month, not that you care."

One particularly powerful hacking device was coming my way. I quickly fought against it, redirecting it. It turned around, then bulleted back in another direction. I stopped it. I could feel my heart pulsing, my thoughts slowly began dissipating. The only instinct was to stop it, no matter the cost.

"You killed two good men, two amazing people, two of my friends that only wanted to free the world from you." His voice turned deep, sharp. "No matter what Loki, they will be avenged. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, you took something precious from us, now we're going to take something precious from you. Bye-bye."

Soon we disconnected. The attacks ceased and I opened my eyes again. I found myself panting once more. Blocking communications was one thing, but something actively trying to breech security was another.

"Adam, what did you mean by 'Taking something precious?'" Jack asked.

Adam smirked at each of us. "All of you, and some of the more slightly seasoned Tech-Head, will be very key to a new operation."

"That is...?" Irene spoke.

"We got information, three days from now, Liberation Day, Loki and his family will be in Neuschwanstein Castle, Germany celebrating."

"So?" I shrugged.

"The day after, in the bleak dawn, after everyone's exhausted from partying we're taking his kids."


	2. Preparation

I was always a shit-shot. I was always unathletic. I was always was scared and pimpled and dirty because of it. Hygiene rations were given out depending how good you did in training. I was always good with numbers, probability, memorizing sequences and such, if I wasn't then I'd be a disgrace to all Tech-Heads, so I was fine with that. But if you asked me who the hell was the President of the U.K., the definition of plebeian or even played a game of chess with me, I was screwed. I never got lotion, I rarely got shower tokens, but I did get lots of toilet paper. I used to hear some stories about guys who had to use only one square each time, not pretty.

"Davids, you're up." Zachary said.

Zachary was a twenty-seven year old man, clean blond hair, blue eyes, shaved face, the works. He was always clean because he was the best damn shot in the ULA. I once saw him toss one pistol in the air, shoot it's trigger and have both pistols make a bullseye (the other bullet ricocheted off the trigger).

"You know I suck with guns." I spoke as I crossed my arms.

"Well try to suck less." He snarked, holding the handle of the pistol out to me.

I groaned and got up, then took it. It was late afternoon, I was at the shooting range with a bunch of others who needed to brush up on their shooting skills. The range wasn't anything special, a half-mile long filled with dry dirt, cardboard slabs with targets drawn on them were randomly placed throughout it. We didn't shoot at wood, or anything metal, or even plastic. Most of the stuff we melted down or recycled, we even used to do with bullets. Until a full shell got it, that was a disaster.

"Alright Penny, you know the drill. Three minutes, three magazines, use them all."

We never ran out of bullets. The "kingdom" replaced guns with the ray things the Chitauri had. A lot of people managed to loot bullets from around the world, we have nearly fifty tons stockpiled.  
I cocked the pistol, aiming in the center of a cardboard box with a target painted on it. Zachary blew the whistle. Grabbing my wrist to stop the kickback, I pulled the trigger. Nothing.

"Damn it, Penny, the safety!" Zachary shouted.

"Shut up!" I replied, turning the switch.

I aimed again, stiffening my arm and supporting my wrist, then pushed the trigger. *BANG!* It flew, a couple feet away, damn, hit the corner of the target. I aimed rapidly and shot just as quickly, the eight bullet magazine was empty. Three hit the ground, two the top, one the side and two a little closer to the center. I took out another magazine, only for it to slip out of my fingers and plop into the dust.

"Two minutes, seven seconds." Zach announced.

"Shit." I bit my lip and reloaded the gun.

I pointed to another target, this one a little closer. I aimed and emptied the magazine on it. This had better results. None struck the ground, three out of the eight were on the three inner rings and one was next to the bullseye. I let the magazine out and successfully put another one in. I whipped myself around, like a badass action hero, and aimed at the first thing I saw, a crude cut out of Loki with crossed eyes and buck teeth. I aimed once more, for his head.

"Thirty seconds..."

"For Peter, you smug mother-"*BANG!*

All the bullets were out. I examined my work. I missed three times. Damn. I had hit Loki's shoulder twice, his neck once and had knocked off one of his stupid horns. I groaned loudly and wiped the sweat off my forehead. Shaking off my arms, I looked at Zachary.

"Good news, you don't suck as bad as you usually do. Bad news, you still suck pretty bad." He remarked with a smirk.

I promptly flipped him off. "Well sor-rie if I'm too busy protecting the island to shoot stuff."

"Don't take that tone, Davids." He threw me a paper bag. "You got a bottle of lotion, three shower tokens, and three and a half rolls of toilet paper."

"Right, thanks."

I trudged back on the dirt path to the buildings. It was summer, so everything was dry dirt. Most parts of the island had desertification, it really couldn't be prevented because we really needed to cut down the trees and we were near Africa. When it did rain, it was usually all mud with some weeds. We almost never got flowers.

"I wish we had some color." I mumbled, kicking a stone.

The attack was tomorrow. Adam had told everyone why we would be kidnapping Loki's children, to hold them hostage in exchange for cities. He never told the complete plan to make sure none of Loki's spies heard it. (Paranoid prick) Makes sense, but that still worried me. The ULA had other bases, but this was our biggest one. To loose it...  
I knocked the image out of my head as I walked into my room. Looking inside, the Recycling Crew had come through. The tin cans were gone, along with the plastic bottles. The radio from yesterday now stood up on my bed. I huffed, then looked up to Peter.

"I'll turn it back on, hopefully it has music." I told him.

I went to the radio, flipped the switch and turned the knobs. I heard the garbled words and strange whirling. Adjusting the antenna and knobs again, I finally heard some music. It was some dubstep, Loki banned certain lyrics, but he let any form of wordless music go on. What most people did was just remix old tracks and remove the lyrics. This song had a lot of bass and electronic sounds. I slipped off my shoes, letting my worn blue socks show, then bobbed my head to the music vigorously. Peter used to tell me about going dancing, and showed me a couple dances that were popular. I liked dancing with him, we could throw dance parties in our hall. But Adam told him off for messing around, so we had no more parties. But that didn't stop me from having a one-person dance party.  
I flailed my arms and twirled around like a maniac. I salsa'd my legs and shook my hips. I even hopped a couple times. I loved doing things like this. Just having fun, to forget. Some people, meaning pricks like Adam, told me I was "drunk off dreams", but I didn't care. It even sounded kind of cool. I danced around crazily for a few minutes before becoming exhausted. I plopped myself on my bed and panted. After resting a bit, and listening to some odd classic-electronic song, I sat up and took a box out from under my bed. I opened it, I kept all my shower tokens in it. I had about fourteen. I tried to take a shower twice a week, two or three days in between.

"I'll take one tomorrow, I'm working tonight." I told myself.

I fell back on my bed I got a bit of a queasy feeling in my stomach, like I was on a boat too long. I got what Adam was doing, but to take the kids? I was nervous, I saw that castle was much less fortified compared to the White House or Buckingham Palace, but still to take on the guards and possibly Loki himself!? Hell, every kid over five had combat training!

"Damn, what are we gonna do?" I asked myself. I looked up at Peter. "What are we gonna do, Pete?"

He stood on the shelf, quiet as usual. He always ignored me.

"Well then!" I huffed, then put on some sweats. "I'm getting some rest, we're leaving tonight."

I pushed the sheets off my bed. It was summer, and we were in Africa... Kinda, an island, Genosha, I didn't want to sweat into my sheet. Shower tokens were also washing machine tokens. I turned off my lights with a simple command. I was exhausted from training that day. Not just guns, but running and weights, and hacking into a whole bunch of difficult security codes. I got more tired as I thought about it. I relaxed my body, and my thoughts wandered. A free world, Columbus, the US, Disneyland, the Matterhorn, the lake, the promise...

"ATTENTION!"

I bolted up. I looked around, I glanced at my watch. One fifty-four PM (AM), it was about midnight in Munich, Germany. The communications light was on.

"ALL INVOLVED IN THE GERMANY MISSION GO TO THE DOCKS!"

I yawned, my body aching quite a bit. I ignored it my best, turned on my lights and went to my drawer. I put on some polyester army pants, brown combat boots, a bullet proof vest over some under-armor, and an old riot helmet. As I went to the door, I looked back up at Peter.

"Wish me luck, bro."

Then I walked out the door. About a dozen others from my hall were up too. We were going to need a lot of people. I looked around at the others, it looked like anyone over sixteen that were extremely experienced was going. If you were sixteen, you were an adult here, Peter told me it was eighteen worldwide.

"But the U.S. was weird, you couldn't drink until you were twenty-one."

Everyone was pretty loud as we got out, since Adam woke everyone up. People were saying goodbyes, girlfriends to boyfriends, wives to husbands, children to parents... I clutched my penny.

"I miss you mommy." I whispered. "And you too daddy."

I gulped, my heart reacting to the sheer amount of people. I knew people were going to die on this mission. They knew, Adam knew... How did the world get so screwed up? How could Adam let this happen? Why are we going along with this? As I went outside, I saw Freddie walk next to me, quiet as always. He was my age, seventeen, black loose hair, red eyes, deathly serious, and a very seasoned ULA member. He was born into it, at age three he was the first to receive a gene splice that was from mutants, he had the power to create explosions, not sure how. Adam put him to work immediately, he lost his childhood. We weren't really good friends, in fact he kind of hated me, but I always felt bad for him. (When he wasn't a dick)

"What's up?" I asked.

"Hello Penelope." He whispered, me barely hearing him.

We walked down the dirt road to the docks in a huge crowd and down to the docks. The black night sky was barely lit by a crescent moon and specks of stars. Looking behind me, I could see the dark outline of the metal buildings and cliffs of Genosha. Would it be the last time I saw it?

"Just call me Penny." I said, giving my necklace a twirl.

"Nicknames are useless." He mumbled.

I scoffed, and flipped my hair with sass. "'Penny' is more practical cause' it's faster to say."

"Understandable, but informal." He spoke.

Conversations were always like this. No polite comments, no war stories, no nostalgic tales of the outside world. Some people that grew up in the ULA were like this. "The loss of innocence," my brother called it, a term he learned in high school. But that was called by abuse, genocide, holocaust, not by a lost world. I felt a surge of courage in me."

"If we succeed... We can get some of our world back. We can win. Win back the world, bring back innocence." I thought.

Soon we were all down to the highlighted docks. It was gargantuan, about the size of the apartment complexes of the island if you laid them out together. It was where we took off from. Hundreds of boats, from fishing to battleship, anchored in the harbor. On the side was an airstrip and hangers, half the size of the port, where helicopters, stolen Chitauri chariots and even a couple of Loki's Asgardian themed jets. I looked around, our numbers were growing. I guessed around two-thousand, seven-hundred and fifty thousand lived on the island, I believe there were around two million world-wide. Huge lines formed to the Directors, telling us who we were with, and where we would go. Freddie went in front of me, after about twenty minutes it was my turn.

"Name, last, first, power?" She asked.

"Davids, Penelope, Tech-Head."

She searched on her tablet. "Squadron seven, jet seven, with Freddie."

I rolled my eyes. "Great. At least I got a lucky number."

I trudged up the hill. The runway was two miles long, well lit, lined with planes, the hangers at the top. I quickly scanned the numbers near the jets, number seven was a couple feet away. I caught up to Freddie, most of my well armored group was there already, including Jack, Irene and Luiz.

"Are you guys ready?" I asked.

"No." Irene spoke, hugging herself. "I'm scared."

"Yes." Jack and Freddie replied.

"I'm ready." I remarked.

The others looked at each other blankly. The rumble of the conversations soon began to drown my thoughts. I checked my watch again, two twenty-seven. We were supposed to leave at two forty-five and be briefed as we took off.

"We have all twenty, let's get in."

The hatch of the jet angled open. We all march in. I could fly in emergencies with my power, a kind of un-auto pilot, so I sat behind the pilot, Jack. He started turning on things with his powers and put on his earphones.

"We're set to take off in ten minutes." Jack announced.

I looked to Irene. "We'll be fine, we have Freddie."

She nodded nervously. "We do."

We all sat in silence once more. I clutched my lucky penny tightly, likely to leave marks of Lincoln on my palm.

"Peter's with you, Penny." Jack spoke, looking back at me from his mirror.

"Just don't mess up like him." Freddie warned.

I gritted my teeth. "He didn't know!"

"He knew the risks!"

I stood up, slamming my hand on my seat. "At least he had a heart!"

"Penelope, get your ass down!" Luiz shouted. "We can't afford to f-up because of your issues!"

I snarled, but sat back down. I glared daggers at Freddie as I heard the HoloTV turn on. Adam's face appeared, all around him was darkness, but his face was out lined, admittedly creepy, in blue.

"Good day Liberation Army." He spoke. "Today is a very special day. Today we deal a blow to the enemy."

"We're taking off!" Jack shouted. "Seat belts on! We'll be going really fast! Like... G6 fast."

"Don't Jack." Luiz said.

I whipped my belt on, then held onto the guard rail.

"This us our plan, listen carefully, it will not be repeated."

The jet pulled out of it's space and turned to the runway.

"Can't he wait until we're in the air?" I groaned.

"NO!" Freddie yelled.

"Squads one and two will ghost in, followed by squads three through ten."

"Ghosting" meant we would invisible, undetectable. Good.

"Others will wait around the mountains."

I saw squads one, two and three take off. I heard our engines revving.

"One and two, you need to head to the east corridor, third floor." A holographic render of the castle popped up, highlighting the area. "That's where the nursery is, and it's right next to Loki's room. Make sure he hears and sees you."

"The hell?" Luiz said.

Four, five and six were off. It was our turn.

"When he does, take the babies, all of them, and jet off. He will be following you with his army, squads eleven to fifty, protect them. Make sure that the Blockers stop him from using spells at all cost, Tech-Heads cut off his communications."

"Three, two, one..." Jack spoke.

I heard the engine roar, with the sound of a boom we took off. The force pushed me sideways, colliding into Irene. I grabbed on as tight as I could, feeling my joints stretch. We were flying.

"While they're flying away, squads three through eight, head for the tallest tower, that's where all the radars and defense systems are. Tech-Heads stay there and block communications, shut down security, manipulate guns. When Loki is far enough, squads fifty-one through one hundred, hover, land fight and grab as many of those 'Princes' and 'Princesses' as you can. We will not have that much time. Good luck."

I kissed my penny. "Luck."

We turned invisible and flew off. I turned back to Genosha. Not all of us were coming home.


	3. Fight

It would take us five hours to get there. I spent the time looking out my window, thinking about the world. I took a nap after we passed over Arabia and woke up over France. We would be there soon. Freddie passed around guns and ammo. I got a pistol, as usual, and a bag filled with twenty magazines. I took a deep breathe, clutching my penny.

"We're almost there." Luiz spoke.

I nodded, still holding my coin. I could see the sun peering over the ocean, barely lighting the sky. We were over a lot of green landscape, with some scattered blue veins of water.

"Ironic, isn't it?" Jack said, keeping his eyes on the horizon. "We're here, in Germany, where it began."

"And we're ending it." Irene finished.

"Or starting to end it." I added, sliding my magazine in and out of my pistol, making sure it fit and trying my best not to make a crude joke.

"You don't know that." Freddie stated, gazing at his machine gun. "We could still fail."

I rolled my eyes and groaned. "Can you at least try and be optimistic?"

"There is always a percentage of failure. It can increase or decrease with who's in the group." He said glancing at me.

I bit my lip. "What the hell does that mean?"

"Don't even get started you guys!" Irene scolded, she turned to Freddie. "Shut the hell up, you may have issues but you don't need to give us some." Then to me. "Stop being so damn touchy! You know Peter made a mistake so shut the hell up, you overactive bitch!"

"Well sor-ry!" I huffed, turning away.

I looked back down at my coin, Abe was staring at me. I felt a weight on my breathe.

"They're wrong, Peter." I thought. "So wrong..."

"Squad One to all, we're almost there."

My heart quickened at that. I could feel the adrenaline seep into my bloodstream. I felt my breathe quicken, my heart-rate was exponentially increasing.

"Find a penny, pick it up." I spoke to myself. "All day long you'll have good luck."

We flew over small towns, a lake, more grassy hills. On the mountain I saw it. A huge castle, like something out of a storybook, sat on a lush cliff. It had white stone walls, beautiful windows, and blue tile roofing. Around it was a sort of translucent orb.

"Tech-Heads, get ready."

I held out my hands and focused. I could sense the programs working. With the help of others, I created an error in the program, making it not detect that the shield opened and closed. It was complex, but there were a lot of us to make it easier.

"Well done, we're in."

It was very early dawn. It was Summer, so it was around five here. Hopefully most were exhausted from partying and still sleeping. Or better yet, hung over.

"We're branching. Squads Three to Eight, hover around the tower. We'll signal you."

The jet cruised quietly over to the tower, not even creating wind. It was small, with small windows. This would be difficult. But I could feel the programs inside. I held my breathe, and said a prayer. We could change the world soon. I filtered out all noise, feeling my heart claw against my chest. My mind was waiting, focusing. Nothing else mattered now.  
I heard a crash. Looking outside, I saw smoke form from the side of the castle. Small figures hopped into the building, and jumped back into the jet carrying small bundles. The babies, two of them, one girl one boy. One was six months, the other just three respectively. They were just the bait. Blue lights shot at the jet, but it closed and zoomed off in the blink of an eye. In a flash, a black and gold figure appeared. Loki. I would snipe the bastard if I could. He took off after it, hundreds of Chitauri following. It looked like most of the defenses were gone.

"GO! GO! GO!" Jack yelled.

"Squads Eleven to Fifty, protect the bait!"

The bay doors opened. Freddie went first, grabbing a rope tied to the jet he dropped into the window. Followed by thirty others. I heard struggling inside, beams and bullets fired. I cancelled an alarm that was sounded, others concealed the tower, making an illusion that looked like nothing was happening. I jumped in with several others and landed on broken glass, thankful for my boots, and looked around. It was a Tech-geek's heaven. Cameras, radars, satellite, even some magic and alien technology. Looking at a nearby screen, I saw video of the gilded hallways. Servants running (and some stumbling drunkenly), Queens Huan and Elona were crying. Some of Loki's other children were up as well.

"Shut down security! Hurry!" Freddie commanded.

The Tech-Heads wordlessly accessed all the systems. I shut down the radars and senors, and with help automatic weapons.

"Whoever's done with that, mask communications, no signal goes through, nothing gets turned off!"

I heard gunfire in the hallway. I looked at another camera to see our guys making a force field outside, blocking the Chitauri shooting at us. Luiz quickly hacked the shield preventing our friends coming in, and disabled them. I ran to the nearest communication satellite and helped create a glitch in the system, nothing would go through to Loki, but it made all the radios and calls look normal. We also had Power Blockers preventing magical communication as well, they promised to give it their all. Even if it could kill them.  
My brain felt a little numb. That always happens when I use my power a lot. I loose a little bit of mind...

"Squads Fifty-One to One Hundred, coming in!"

Continuing the glitch, I looked outside. Dozens of our planes rushed in, shooting and dropping people off. There was only one place to land, a small court. It was just touch and go. It would be hard to get out. Chitauri shot at them while running to their compacted hover bikes. A couple got to theirs, it quickly took off and shot a blinding blue beam towards some jets. It cut one in half with the sound of cracking thunder and it clipped the wings of one. The halves split and crashed into the mountain. The other spiraled out of control, and crashed into another.

"Sixty." I thought solemnly. "Sixty aren't coming home."

I tightened my stomach, trying to keep emotions in. I had to keep control of my emotions. I kept the glitch going on, ignoring the shouts, shootings and smashes the best I could. My neck want to turn desperately, my eyes to search. I fought against it.

"Daddy!"

"Papa!"

"Help!"

My neck jerked upwards. I saw the cameras inside what I guessed was a bedroom hall. Three of Loki's children, identical triplet half-Indian boys with green eyes, brown hair and darker skin wearing red, orange and yellow matching pajamas were carried out by ULA members. Chitauri were running to them, but were quickly killed.

"Dad!"

I turned to the one beside it. Serrure, and his older twin blond sisters, Eloise and Dione, fighting in the hall. They all had armor on, they were fighting off many of our members with magic. Dione was frantically trying to contact her father with magic. But it failed.

"Requesting back up in the east hall! I repeat: Backup in-"

Silence. I searched on the screens. I saw what was happening. Dozens of dead ULA members were strewn across the hall. Hearts pierced, faces melted, limbs torn off. At the end of the hall stood August, full silver armor with an impression of a wolf on the shoulder. He was covered in blood, he looked left and right, then entered a door.

"Papa!"

"Father!"

"Dad!"

"Where are you?!"

The voices kept continuing, but I focused on August. I looked around again. On the top corner, my eyes widened. It was a hospital room. Pink walls, a beautiful egg-shaped window with floral designs, paintings with themes of fantasy like unicorns and glowing fairies. The hospital bed had pink drapes around it, and in it sat Diana. She had her oxygen tank on, she looked worried. Her breathing patters and heart rate were on a nearby screen.

"August, what's going on?" I heard her say.

I was surprised. I realized I tapped the audio. August sighed, and shook his head.

"Diana, bad people have come. They took some of our siblings. Even our baby brother and sister." He spoke softly.

She whimpered, clutching her pink woven blanket over her head, as if it could defend her. "Daddy will take care of it, won't he?"

He sighed, I could see the weariness on his face. "Yes, he will. The others are fighting too, but I have to stay and protect you. Everyone will be fine, but they can't take you."

"Ok August." She spoke, still quiet.

I felt my heart beat faster again. But not because of what was happening.

"Seventeen captured! Seventeen-"

I heard a whirling outside. I couldn't even turn to see what was happening. I felt heat, my hair singed, feet left the ground as I was pushed back. I fell, back first on the stone floor. My lungs felt crushed, I couldn't breathe. I tried again, shifting my weight. Sweet air broke through as I got up. Pain started to appear on my ass and legs. I knew they would leave bruises. Looking outside, a jet had shot into the tower and managed to break the force field.

"Everyone up and out! We're leaving!" I heard Freddie shout.

Regaining my senses, I stumbled up as quick as I could. Even if my legs hurt like hell, I sprinted out of there. I took a quick look around, some limped to stand, others were fine, some didn't get up at all. There was no time to cry, I just ran out with my pistol drawn. We were on the fourth floor now. I followed Freddie while lagging around with a few others. The hall around us was beautiful with amazing paintings and mirrors. But now parts were burned, broken and torn, and bodies were everywhere. More adrenaline was released, pain faded and I kept pace. We turned a corner, a group of ULA agents were finishing a skirmish with some Chitauri. Oliver finished the last of with a bolt of lightning.

"We're leaving! Come on!" I yelled at him.

Along with his squad, Oliver ran up beside me. "Penny! I can't believe you're still alive!"

"Don't you dare jinx it!"

We found some stairs where the Chitauri were waiting for us. We were faster, with a barrage of bullets and powers we decimated them, allowing us to go down. I hated my powers at times like this, I was pretty damn useless. We all ran down to the first floor. The adrenaline started to fade again, pain started to return and my muscles started to ache. I lagged behind, even behind other Tech-Heads. We ran down another familiar hall. Looking around, I saw bodies that were pierced through the heart, faces melted, and limbs torn off. Diana's hall.  
As we ran, I saw the door open. Everyone passed it without the beat of an eye, but I looked it. The heart rate was getting slower. I froze. I looked at my fleeing comrades, then inside.

"Penny! What's wrong?" Oliver had turned around.

"Let's go Davids!" Freddie yelled from ahead.

My foot took a step in. My body wasn't obeying me. My mind was blank, white nothingness. I was inside the room. More Dead ULA, I stared and found a familiar face. Irene laid there, heart pierced. August was gone. Looking to the bed, the sheets were dragged to one side. I turned my eyes to the floor. Diana was laying there, gasping, crying, unable to move. I looked to her oxygen. It was off.

"Forget her! Let's go!" Oliver yelled.

"Davids!" Freddie shouted.

I looked down at her. That poor little girl. Her bright blue eyes turned up at me, her chest moving scarcely.

"Please..." She spoke, barely over a whisper.

"Don't be like Peter!" Oliver snapped. "I will tell Adam!"

"Fuck." I whispered.

With a swishing movement I turned on the oxygen tank. I picked up Diana and placed her back on her bed.

"I'm sorry, we had to take them. But it's not right for you to die." I spoke hastily, pulling the sheets over her chest.

She took a deep breathe, then nodded. I turned to a scowling Oliver and a plain-faced Freddie. I ran past them, and they quickly followed. We finally reached the courtyard, it was a damn battlefield. Shots, fire, rubble, bodies. We managed to protect a section where we could take off and stay safe. I ducked into the nearest jet. It was overcrowded, with injured, moaning people. I went to the end and grabbed onto something. Turning my head, I saw August. He was chained up with Vibranium shackles, his face was wet with tears, his nose was running and his cheeks were irritated. I would have laughed if the situation were different.

"Don't cry, you look stupid. Diana's fine."

He looked at me, eyes now crossed, pupils shaking. "Why should I believe you?"

I rolled my eyes at him. "Yeah, don't believe the person that's trying to make you feel better."

"I know how things like this work." August sniffed. "You try to be my friend, so we can comply."

"Listen, douchebag." I gently slapped his chest. "I don't want to be your friend. I hate your guts, I really do. I'm just telling you the truth." I turned my back to him. "You're sister's going to be fine."

He didn't say anything to me.


End file.
